Numbers chapter 22. These next
three chapters, I'm not for sure, we'll look at it just a little
bit tonight. Maybe we'll go back to it again, but there's no way
we can cover all three of these chapters. But these three chapters,
Numbers chapter 22, 23 and 24, is concerning a false prophet,
this conniving king. by the name of Balak. He was
the king of Midian, the king of the Moabites. And he and Balaam,
this false prophet, the very covetous prophet, connived together
to curse the Lord's people. And that's what these three chapters
are about. And this man, one of the reasons
I wanted us to study about this, this man is a very interesting
fellow. I think of all the false prophets
in the Old and New Testament, I don't know of any other prophet
that the Word of God would attribute so much time to and paper as
it has this prophet. He's spoken of in different places
in the Old Testament. He's spoken of quite often in
the New Testament, to be honest with you. And what we're told
about this fellow is, Peter said he loved the wages of unrighteousness. Boy, he loved money. And when
Peter says he loved money, he loved it above everything. He
loved it above God. He loved it above truth. He loved
it above his own salvation. He loved it above the people
of God. He was a lover of the wages of unrighteousness. And his love for this money,
his love for this money, It got him in all kinds of trouble.
It caused him really to deceive himself, caused him to deceive
other people, caused him to lead people astray, and finally got
him killed. It finally got him killed. So
this is the prophet we want to look at. You probably, if you
don't recognize the name of Balaam, you probably recognize him as
having the donkey that talked. Remember the fellow that had
the talking donkey? Well, that's this guy here. And
he got mad because the donkey kept swerving from the angel
of the Lord, you find this here in chapter 23. The angel appeared
to this donkey, and the donkey kept trying to get out of the
way of the angel because it scared the donkey. And it kept crushing
poor Balaam's foot against the wall. Finally, it just fell on
him. It just fell on him. He got his
staff out and went to beating on him. And the Lord opened the
donkey's mouth and started talking, and Bellum was talking with the
donkey. Now, if you could have seen this, I'm telling you, if
you could have seen this, but here's what Bellum said. The donkey
said, why are you beating me? And he said, because you're mocking
me. You're mocking me. You know,
you wonder which one's the answer, don't you, if you read this,
if you read the account of this. But he said, if I had a sword
in my hand, I'd kill you. That's what he told his dog.
If you had a talking donkey, would you kill him? If I had a talking donkey, I'd
make some money off of him, wouldn't you? But that's how mad this
man was. That's how covetous this man
was. He wanted money, and this donkey
was delaying him getting it. Here in chapter 22, verses 1
through 7, this really sets the scene. I want to read just a
little bit to you, but I want to set the scene here of why
this even happened to begin with. In chapter 22, in verse 1, the
children of Israel set forth and pitched in the plains of
Moab, on this side of Jordan by Jericho. And Balak, the son
of Zipporah, saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, And
Moab was so afraid, the people of Moab, the citizens of this
country were afraid of Israel because they were many, and Moab
was distressed because of the children of Israel. And Moab
said unto the elders of Midian, How shall this company, now shall
this company lick up all that are round about
us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field? And Balak
the son of Zorpor was king of the Moabites at that time. And
he sent messengers, therefore, unto Balaam the son of Beor,
to Pether, which is by the river of the land of the children of
his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come
out from Egypt. Behold, they cover the face of
the earth, and they abide over against me. Come now, therefore,
I pray thee, and curse me this people, for they are too mighty
for me. Preadventure I shall prevail.
that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land.
For I know that he whom thou blessedest is blessed, and he
whom you curse is cursed. And the elders of more than the
elders of Median departed with the reward of divination in their
hand, and they came unto Balaam, and spake unto him the words
of Balaam. And he said unto them, Lord,
hear this night, and I will bring you word again, as the Lord shall
speak unto me, and the princess of Moab bowed with Balaam." Now
that's set in the scene here, and what happened, we read to
you there in the first few verses, children of Israel were becoming
warriors. Now remember, this is the next
generation. The first generation were wimps.
That's why they wouldn't go into the land of Canaan. But these
fellows, they had begun to fight. And man, they had whipped some
great nations. It's said here that Balak saw what they did
to the two kings of the Amorites. And there was two kings. You
often read about them in the Old Testament. David wrote about
them. They sang about them. It was Og, the king of Bashan,
and Sihon. Sihon, the king of Bashan, and
Og was their name. They were two great kings of
the Moabites. And Og was a giant. Boy, I was telling the Maya today,
she didn't believe me. She said, that can't be true.
But he had a bed that was thirteen and a half foot long and six
foot wide. I don't know how big this man
was. He was a giant. Can you imagine? And he ruled
over some giants. But he had sixty cities that
were walled up to heaven. Sixty major cities. And he had a bunch of little
towns. This was just the one guy now. This was Og. And the
other guy, Sahan, was just about as mighty as he was. Well, the
children of Israel went in among these fellows and whipped them.
They tucked those great cities. They killed their people, even
their male children. They kill the women that have
known men, and they tuck their cities and rule over them. This
is the country where the two-and-a-half tribes lived in and stayed in
when the other tribes went into the land of Canaan. Balak, the
king of the Moabites, he heard about this, and he said, man,
we're in trouble. We're in trouble. He said, I
know I can't whip them. I can't whip them. They're too
mighty. And this God, whoever He is,
is with them. So what he did, he connived to
send a Balaam. Because he knew that when Balaam
came and cursed somebody, they were cursed. When he blessed
them, they were blessed. So he called this man by the
name of Balaam. He comes here, and they come
here to his house, and he says, you fellas stay here tonight.
Let me see what God will tell me to do. And this is where we
begin. And this is so serious. This
is so serious. Because this man, There was something
about this man in these three chapters that's very awakening. I've often thought about this
fellow. He's seen visions. God gave him visions. And when
he's seen these things, they come to pass. They were real.
They were true. And God gave this man visions,
and boy, that's something that's bothered me down through my Christian
life. Man, what can God give a man
and still not give him life? And that's what I see in this
man Balaam here. But here now in verse 8, beginning there in
verse 8 and verse 9, he said, You wait here, and then we'll
see what God will say to me. Now, the first thing in verse
9, And God came to Balaam and said, What men are these with
thee? And Balaam said unto God, They
like the son of Sophor, king of Boaz, and sent unto me, saying,
Behold, there is a people come out of Egypt, which covereth
the face of the earth. Come now, curse me them, preadventure,
I shall be able to overcome them, and drive them out." Now here's
what God's answer was to him, this is very important, in verse
12. And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them,
thou shalt not curse the people, for they are blessed. And Balaam
rose up in the morning and said unto the princess of Balaam,
Get you into your own land, for the Lord refuses to give me leave
to go with you." He left out one little part, didn't he? I
think probably if he had told the whole truth, they wouldn't
have come back. If he had said, God refuses to let me bless them,
God has blessed them, they probably wouldn't have come back. But
he left that out, didn't he? He left that out. And we'll see
in just a minute why he left that out. Verse 14, the princes
of Moab rose up and they went to Balaam and said, Balaam refuses
to come with us. And Balaam sent yet again princes
more and more honorable than they. And they came to Balaam
and said unto him, Thus saith Balaam the son of Zophar, Let
nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee from coming unto me. For
I will promote thee unto very great honor. And I will do whatsoever
thou sayest unto me. Come, therefore, I pray thee,
curse me this people.' And Balaam answered and said unto the servants
of Balak, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and
gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do
less or more." Boy, he's an honorable fellow, ain't he? Sounds like
that, don't it? But let's read on. Pray ye also here this night,
that I may know what the Lord will say unto me more.' And God
came to Balaam at night, and said unto him, If the men come
to call thee, rise up and go with them, but let the word which
I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do. And Balaam rose up in
the morning, and saddled his axe, and went with the princess
of Moab. And God's anger was kindled because
he went. And the angel of the Lord stood
in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his
ass and his two servants with him." Now note verse 12 because
verse 12 is the key to understanding verse 22. If the Lord said here
in verse 20, rise up and go with them. If they asked you, rise
up and go with them. And he went, and yet in verse
22 said, the anger of God was kindled against him because he
went. Doesn't that sound contradictory?
Doesn't that sound inconsistent with what God told him? He says,
if they call you to go, you've got my permission to go. But
when he went, God was angry with him. Well, here's the secret
to understand what's going on here, and it's verse 12. Now, this is very critical. Look
in verse 12 again. And God said unto Balaam, Thou
shalt not go with them. Thou shalt not curse the people,
for they are blessed. That's plain enough, isn't it?
That should have settled, it shouldn't. And Balaam knew that
should have settled. That's why he sent the messengers
back to start with and says, I'm not coming. God has told
me no. He's revealed His will to me
by His Word, and He says no. When God gives His Word and reveals
His will, it's not going to change, is it? Even if we seek to change
it and go beyond it, that's a very dangerous thing. Did you know
that? When God reveals His will through His Word, it's a very
dangerous thing to seek beyond that revealed will. This is what
got this man in trouble. Let me see what God will say
more. You mean God's got something
more to say, Balaam? No, He doesn't, does He? God
has already told him, you shall not go. And now he goes and says,
let me go ask Him again. Let me see if He'll say more.
Maybe he'll change his mind. Maybe he'll change his will.
Say more. God doesn't have anything else
to say apart from His revealed will, does He? What more does
God need to say? It's a dangerous thing to seek
permission to go beyond what God reveals in His written Word. A man who does this is asking
for trouble. I mean, he's standing on dangerous
ground, and the outcome is sure to be fatal. It's sure to be
fatal. And this is what's so fearful
here about Balaam's case. God gave him permission to do
what he wanted to do, but at the same time, God's anger was
kindled against him. You know, God may give a man
permission to do something that's outside his written Word, that's
outside his revealed will. And when he does that, which
God may give him permission to do, God is angry with him. Why? Because the man already knows
that it's against God's will to do it. His Word is already
told him. Thou shalt not go. Well, that's enough, ain't it?
That's enough. Thou shalt not go. If God has
revealed His will by His Word, then it's not only a sin to go
contrary to it. One time, the first time, But
if it's contrary to go against God's revealed will the first
time, then it's contrary the second time, is it not? And the
third time or the tenth time. Let me go see what God says more. No, he doesn't say that. He doesn't
say that. Look over here in verse 32. Beginning
there in verse 22, we see this account of his donkey talking
with him. And here in verse 32, look what he does still. He keeps
going downhill, this poor man does. And it's because of this
reason that Peter said about it. Look here in verse 32. And
the angel of the Lord said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten
thine eyes these three times? Behold, I went out to withstand
thee, because thy way is perverse before me. And the ash saw me,
and turned from thee, me, these three times. Unless she had turned
from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive. This scared this prophet to death."
And look what he said in verse 34, And Balaam said unto the
angel of the Lord, I have sinned, for I knew not that thou stoodest
in the way against me. Now therefore If it displeased
thee, I will get me back again." If it displeased thee? If it
displeased thee? He was still pleading to God,
still making excuses, as though God had not already said, if
it pleased thee. When God permits a man to do
something that he knows is absolutely against his will, And God lets
him do it anyway? I tell you, that's a sure sign
that God has set a man on slippery ground. When God gives a man
permission to do something that he knows is contrary to God's
revealed will, and God lets him do it, and God gives him permission
to do it, I tell you, it puts him on slippery ground. And God
sets people down. Look what he says here in verse
35. And the angel of the Lord said unto Balaam, Go with the
men, but only the word that I speak unto thee, that shall I speak. And Balaam went with the princess
of Balaam. Man, God's still letting him
go. God's still letting him go. But you know something? God's
still angry with him. And the angel of the Lord still
says, Your way is perverse before me. Why? Thou shalt not go with
them. And when a man or a woman or
anybody knows the revealed will of God from the wit and word
of God, and they go contrary to that, their way becomes perverse
before the Lord. I thought of that passage of
Scripture as I was studying on this, because judgment against
an evil work is not executed speedily, The heart of the sons
of man is against them. Because judgment against an evil
work is not executed speedily, the heart of the sons of man
is fully set in to do evil. If God would have judged this
man quickly, but he didn't. He just kept giving him permission,
didn't he? Giving him permission. Oh, I
want to go. Go ahead. Go ahead. But God's
judgment was against him, wasn't it? There have been men who have
gone headlong into obvious sins, sins against the Lord too, because
they felt no restraint upon their conscience. And the reason they
felt no restraint upon their conscience was this, God allowed
them to do it. And the reason God allowed them
to do it, because they already knew that it was wrong to begin
with. And when that happens, it's dangerous,
ain't it? It's dangerous. It's dangerous
when I know. It's dangerous when God reveals
Me to me through His Word and says, Bruce, no. Bruce, yes. Then I go contrary to that. And
it's especially dangerous when I feel the liberty to do it.
That's dangerous. That's dangerous. If, if it displeases
me, I will go back. If it displeases me. It was bothering
him, wasn't it? He knew, didn't he? He knew.
He knew this. That's why it was bothering him.
If, if, if. We was talking the other night
about Joyce. What's her name? Dr. Joyce Druthers. What's her name? Myers. We was talking about her
the other night and I've watched her a few times. And there's
something that bothers her. And it's her preaching. And some
of you have noticed this about her too if you've watched her
very much. Almost every time she gets up to preach, she gets
into this. I know some of you don't think
I shouldn't be preaching, God don't call women to preach. That's
got to be bothering her. And I just about bet you anything
back yonder, a few years ago when her time passed somewhere,
She has probably been confronted with those Scriptures. I suffer
not a woman to teach or usher authority over a man. She is
commanded to be in silence. I bet you anything she's been
confronted with this. But her desire to preach and
usher authority was so great, she just keeps suppressing it.
I bet there is times when she says, Oh God, if you don't want
me to preach, if you don't want me to go back to the pulpit,
But she goes back anyway. And why? Why did Balaam? Why did Balaam go on? Why did
he have this burning desire to go curse the children of Israel?
Well, let's read on in our text. Let's read on a little further. Verse 36. Here's why he went. And when Balak heard that Balaam
was come, he went out to meet him unto the city of Moab, which
is in the border of Arnon. which is in the utmost coast.
And Balak said unto Balaam, Did I not earnestly send unto thee
to call thee? Wherefore comest thou not unto
me? Am I not able indeed to promote thee to honor?" Oh, that's it
ain't it? That's it right there. Why did
he insist on going? He loved the wages of unrighteousness. Am I not able to promote thee? Well, sure you're able. I know
you're able. That's why I'm here. I love what
you're going to give me. You're going to make me rich.
You're going to make my name great. That's why I'm here. That's
why I'm here in spite of God telling me not to be here. If a man has not seen the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ for himself, If the Holy Ghost
has not shed abroad in his heart the love of the truth of the
gospel, his heart's going to find something in this world.
His heart's going to find something in this world to steal it away. Now, ain't that the truth? I
don't know what it is. It scares me after death, wondering
what's going to steal my heart. Peoples have their hearts stolen,
some by craving power, some by craving fame, some by craving
a legacy, some by craving money or things. But if a man is not
converted, if he does not have a new heart, if he is not risen
as it was with Christ, he will not set his affections on things
above. And if his affection is not on
things above, where are his affections at? It must be on things of this
world. And I tell you, if it is, if
it is, the world is going to take you away. It is going to
steal your heart. I think that's one thing that
happened to Billy Graham. I heard Billy Graham preach a
message the other day, and I could not believe it. When he was young,
I couldn't believe it was him. I sat there and listened in utter
amazement. He wasn't trying to please men back then. He preached
a wonderful message, and I couldn't believe sitting there listening
that it was even him. What took him away, you wonder? I'll tell you one thing took
him away. He could not endure opposition. He could not endure
to be disliked of people. He wanted to please everybody.
And he began to please everybody but the true church. He began
to court men's favor, court the favor of our presidents and governors
and leaders all over the world. And it won his heart. It got
his heart. That's what happened to this
man Balaam. That's what happened to him. Demas hath forsaken me,
having loved this present evil world. Having loved. I don't know what stole Demas'
heart away. I don't know what object his heart was set upon,
but we know this. He loved something apart from
Christ. He loved something more than
he loved the gospel. That's what happened to this man. He loved
the wages of unrighteousness. He pretended to be a holy man.
He pretended to be a holy man. Look in verse 38. Listen to what
he said. Boy, this sounds so honorable.
And Balaam said unto Balak, Lo, I am coming to thee. Have I now
any power at all to say anything? The word that God puts in my
mouth, that shall I speak. Boy, that's honorable, ain't
it? Oh, he appeared to be such a God-honoring man. I can't say
anything but what God tells me. I ain't got no strength. I ain't
got no ability. God has given me this gift. And
when He speaks, I speak. If He's silent, I'm silent. I'm
here to honor God. Oh, Philly, you're here to get
some money from Baylife. That's why it's here. Boy, I
tell you, you've got to be careful of these false prophets, don't
you? You don't look sometimes at what they're saying. Look
at what they're doing. Look at what they're doing. And
it ain't long until they'll give themselves away. Balaam pretended
to be a holy man. And here in chapter 23 in verses
1 and 2, boy, he pretended to worship. And look at some of
the things he did. The very same things that Jehoiab
Israel did. In verse 1, And Balaam said unto
Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven oxen
and seven rams. Boy, he seemed to be a worshipper,
didn't he? You know, the children of Israel offered these same
sacrifices. Here's one of the great differences,
though. The children of Israel had only one altar. They had
only one altar. He had seven. He had seven. These false prophets will always
err. They'll always err. If you watched
any of this, Shannon, I know Shannon and them started watching
this, the Bible, on TV and the Bible. I think Remy saw through
those fellas pretty quick, I think. But some of the things they did,
some of the things they twisted was amazing. And I watched it
one night and I thought, why in the world would they do that?
You remember when Samuel came and anointed David? The Scripture
says he anointed him in the midst of his brethren. Well, that movie,
the documentary, Had Samuel walking down a creek bank and just ran
up on David, standing there by himself, and got out his horn
and anointed him. Just them two there. It was important
that Jesus Christ be anointed in the midst of His brethren. So these false prophets, they
make some awful mistakes. Awful mistakes. They weren't
allowed to build but one altar. Everything you offered had to
be offered on that one altar. They built seven. They built
seven. Gathered the horse. Look in Jude
right quickly what Jude said about these men like this. Whole Numbers 28. Look in Jude. I didn't want to say too much
about this because hilarious dilemma this man and false prophets. But look here in Jude verse 11. Jude 1.11. He mentions him among two other
other fellows here, and I think probably you can categorize all
religions and these three men, the heads of them. Woe unto them,
speaking of these false prophets, for they have gone in the way
of Cain. What was the way of Cain? Works
religion, wasn't it? Why did he get mad at his brother? Because his brother approached
him to God through a sacrifice. His brother was justified by
faith. This man Cain sought to be justified
by what he grew. He brought the works of his hands.
False religion. Justification by works. This
old attitude is still around him. You still see it. It's prevalent
in our churches today. We're not justified by the blood
of Christ. We're not justified by faith
in Christ. We've got to do something. You've
got to work your way. You're just going to set you
and leave and that's all you've got to do? That's all Abel did. That's all we better do when
we think of being justified before God. But Cain said, you're a
sorry man. I'm going to kill you. And that's
what he did. He killed his brother. The way of Cain. And they ran
greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward. They're covetous
prophets. Everything they do, they've got
money in their eyes. And they vomit from the poor
widows a lot of times. They'll cheat, lie, steal, any
way to get money. That's why they're arrogant.
Greedy. Greedy. And they perished in
the gang saying of Cora. And you and I looked at that
demo. Cora wanted the ministry. He wanted the ministry, boy.
He coveted the ministry. He wanted that power. He wanted
the fame of it. They've gone in the way. of these
men. Motives. Bad, bad motives. False prophets. Look back over
here then in our text. I want to look. There's the man.
We can't spend any more time on him. If you want to read about
him, get in your concordance, look at every place in the Bible
that talks about Balaam. You can learn something about
him. But I want to finish our study. with the visions that
this man had. Now this is what's very certain
to me and has been for years. God gave this man visions, now
not delusions. He let him deceive himself, but
God moved upon this man to give him visions. And his prophecies
were true. And he saw some magnificent visions.
He knew more than a lot of us as preachers know, I'm afraid.
Look back over here in our text. And look in Numbers chapter 23.
Let me read some here to you. Numbers chapter 23. And look in verse 5. This is where they set up the
altars and were offering the sacrifices. Balaam went to check to see if
the Lord had anything he wanted him to say. Verse 5, And the
Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, Return unto Balak,
and thus shalt thou speak. And he returned unto Balak, and,
lo, Balak stood by his burnt sacrifices, he and all the princes
of Moab. And Balaam took up this parable
and said, Balak the son of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out
of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me, Jacob,
and come, defy Israel. How shall I curse whom God hath
not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the
Lord hath not defied?" Now, you get a hold of this. This is amazing,
isn't it? This is all true. This is from
God, and the words are amazing in themselves. And we may have
to go back and just look at these words, at His prophecy. But we've just got time tonight
to look at the fact that He did say these things. In verse 9,
For from the top of the rocks I see Him. I see Jacob, God's
people. From the hills I behold Him. Lo, the people shall dwell alone. and shall not be reckoned among
the nations." Now, think of that. This is what he says about God's
children. They're not like other people. They're not among the
nations. They're separate. Isn't that
the church? Isn't that the Lord's people
today? They're separate people, aren't they? They're purchased.
They're not like this world. In verse 10, "...who can count
the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel?"
That's what God told Abraham, was it? Abraham, He said, you
look to the stars. If you can number the stars,
that's how many children you're going to have. Your seed is going
to be as the sand by the seashore. And now this prophet saw this.
He saw. And here's what he said, Oh,
let me die the death of the righteous and let my end be like His. That's what he desired. That's
what he desired. But there's something standing
in his way. What was it? His money, wasn't it? His money.
And Balak said unto Balaam, What hast thou done unto me? I took
thee to curse my enemies, and behold, thou hast altogether
blessed them. And he answered and said, Must
I not take heed to speak that which the Lord hath put in my
mouth? Look at his second prophecy,
down in verse 16. And the Lord met Balaam, and
put a word in his mouth, and said, Go again unto Balak, and
say thus, And when he come to him, behold, he stood by his
burnt altar, and the princess of Moab with him. And Balak said
unto him, What hath the Lord spoken? And he took up this parable
and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear hearken unto me, thou son
of Zophar. God is not a man, that he should
lie, neither the son of man, that he should repent. Hath he
said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall
he not make it good? Now, that's a true thing. That's
a truth. Behold, I have received commandment
to bless, and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. And look in verse 21. He hath
not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither has he seen perverseness
in Israel. The Lord his God is with him,
and the child of a king is among him. The children of Israel did
not understand this. Here they were down in the desert,
and how often do we read of their murmurs, and their complaining,
and their sinning, and the rod of the Lord falling upon them.
But here, boy here, we learn the truth of God's perspective
of them. Here this man has been up on the mountain. Here God
has opened his heart. Here God gives him a vision,
and God says, Here is what I think of my people, and I want you
to go tell Balak about this. And what does he say? Well, he
says, I have not beheld iniquity in Jacob. I have not seen perverseness
in Israel. And brothers and sisters, when
I look at you, you feel so unworthy. You feel so ashamed of yourself.
You're often condemning yourself and judging yourself for your
own sin and unworthiness. But if you're in Christ, how
does God feel about you? This is what He says about you.
I don't see perverseness in you. I have searched you and I've
looked and I don't see any sin in you. All I see is my Son. All I see is His blood. All I
see is His righteousness. I can't see beyond that. Man,
what a vision! What a vision! I tell you, there
are some free-will Baptists that can learn a lesson from this
false prophet. God has brought them out of Egypt,
verse 22. He hath, as it were, the strength
of a unicorn. Surely there is no enchantment
against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel.
According to this time, it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel,
What hath God wrought? Oh, my soul, what has God done?
Look here in chapter 24. I'll not read all this, but this
whole chapter is made up of God giving this man a vision. Chapter 24, When Balaam saw that
it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went not, as at other
times, to seek for enchantment, but he set his face towards the
wilderness. And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel abiding
in their tents according to their tribe, and the Spirit of God
came upon him. And he took up this parable and
said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose
eyes are open hath said, he hath said which heard the words of
God, which saw the vision of the Almighty falling into a trance,
having his eyes opened, how goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy
tabernacles, O Israel. And he goes on blessing and blessing
them. and even predicts that they're
going to overcome poor Balak. And Balak gets so mad, he says,
I've caused you to curse my enemies, and you've blessed them these
three times. You've blessed them. And he said,
I'll tell you what you better do. You better get out of my
sight if you know what's good for you. And he ran him off. He ran him off. Let me close with these things.
This is a very, very awakening thing when we read the visions
that this man saw of God. How in the world are we to understand
this? This is especially, I think,
a good lesson to preachers. It's a good lesson to preachers.
It's amazing how this false prophet could prophesy such great truths.
But you know, others have done it too. You remember Caiaphas
and John chapter John chapter 11. Remember that wicked man,
that wicked priest? He prophesied that Christ should
die for that nation and gather together the children of God
scattered throughout the world. And the Bible says he said this
not of himself, but being a high priest he prophesied. Look at
Judas. Look at Judas. The Lord sent
him out. The Lord sent him out to cast
out devils. And he was a devil himself. He
went out and preached that men should repent, and he was without
it himself. He went out and preached the
kingdom of God is drawn near, and he never ended it himself.
What may God give a man? What gifts may God give a man
to preach and yet not be converted? Isn't that an awesome, scary
thing? Here, I think, is what we can
learn from this. When we preach the truth to others, whether
we be a preacher or not, we best make sure that we believe that
truth ourselves. If we are out preaching to others,
we better be sure that we love that truth ourselves. Because
if we don't, we may preach to others and be no more than a
bailiff. Before we possess any gifts,
we better possess the giver. Now, ain't that so? I don't want
the gift to preach. I tell you, that's not what I'm
seeking after. I'll be honest with you. I want
to know Him that calls men to preach. And if I don't know Him
and my interest is not in Him, I tell you, God have mercy on
me out here preaching if I don't know Him. This is life eternal
not to preach, not to be possessed of gifts. This is life eternal
that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom Thou hast sent. A man can go to heaven. with
a giver. But a man that goes to hell has
just got a bunch of gifts. Now that's dangerous, ain't it?
That's what's so awakening about this man here. Salvation is not
in seeing visions. Salvation is not in falling into
trances. That's not what salvation is.
This man saw visions and they were true visions. He fell into
trances with his eyes open and prophesied the truth of what
he saw. and died and went to hell because
salvation is not in these things. Oh, God said to me, I saw a vision. I fell into this trance. Do you
know the Lord? Has Jesus Christ been revealed
to you? Is He precious to your heart? Is your faith in His blood? I
don't care about the vision. I don't care about the trances
or the feelings. That won't save us, will it?
That's what's so frightening about this man here. And here in chapter 25, right
quickly, look here in chapter 25. Chapter 24, Balaam
told Balak, or Balak told Balaam, you better get out of here, because
I'm awful mad at you. You've blessed my enemies. In
chapter 25, "...and Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began
to commit whoredom." The children of Israel began to commit fornication. "...were the daughters of Moab.
And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods.
And the people did eat and bowed down to their gods. And Israel
joined himself unto Baal-peor, and the anger of the Lord was
kindled against him." What in the world just happened? How
did this happen? Everything was going along fine.
And suddenly, the men among the children of Israel began to commit
fornication with the daughters of Moab. Look in chapter 31, and we see
exactly how this happened. Look in verse 16. This is where they finally whipped
Moab. The children of Israel whipped
them. Killed the kings of Median. Killed Balak. But they saved
some of the women alive. And in verse 16, Moses rebuked
them for it. Behold these, these women that
you have saved alive, caused the children of Israel, look
at this, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass
against the Lord in the matter of Peorah. And there was a plague
among the congregation of the Lord. What in the world happened? We thought that Balaam took off
and went back to his home place. Well, he did, but he had a conversation
with Balak that we weren't told anything about until here. He
got Balak off to the side and said, listen, listen, I want
to tell you how to get Get God's anger against them, the children
of Israel. You get some of your pretty women
and put them in bikinis. And you start parading them close
to the camps of the Israelites. And what's going to happen? Those
men's lust is going to be stirred up. And they're going to start
coming out and flirting with these beautiful women. And before
long, they're going to have this thing going, you see. The fornication. Then they'll entice them to come
into the camp of the Moabites. And then they'll entice them
to worship your idols. And then the judgment of God
will come upon them. You know what Revelation 2.14
says? That very same thing. He says,
in your churches, the church of Pergamos, you've got some
men that hold the doctrine of Balaam. As Balaam taught Balak. to cast a stumbling block before
the children of Israel, and to commit fornication, and to eat
things offered unto idols. That's what Balaam did. He said,
I'll tell you what you'll do. If you'll do what I tell you
to do, and I want a little on the side now, you know, I'm going
to tell you how to do this, but you're going to have to pay me
for it. You're going to have to pay me for it. You do what
I'm telling you to do, and you'll see, boy, it'll have a good result.
That's what it is. That's what it is. False prophets
are sneaking. They're conniving. You have to
watch some of the truth. Somebody said, I want you to
listen to this tape and see what he said. He said a lot of good
things. But he's a false prophet. Give
him an opportunity and you'll see the damage he does to the
church of Christ and to the glory of God. If a man's a false prophet,
don't listen to him. Somebody said there's some good
among the Catholic Church. There's no good among the Catholic
Church. There's some good among all religions. I'm telling you,
there's one gospel. There's one church. And don't
look for good among the Church of Christ. There is none. They're
rotting at the court. Is that right, Larry? It's heresy. It's cultism. There's no good
among the Mormons. There's no good among the Jehovah
Witnesses. There was no good with this man
Balaam. Stay away from these guys. Condemn
them. Judge them. Pronounce the curse of God upon
them. Cursed is every man who continueth
not in this gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And look here in
verse 31 and verse 8. Here is what finally happened
to this fellow. And they slew the kings of the medium. Old
Balak, he got what he thought was coming to him. He got what
he thought he was going to get. Besides the rest of them that
were slain, namely Eba, and Rechem, and Jer, and Her, and Reba, five
kings of Median, and Balaam, also the son of Beor, they slew
with the sword. They slew with the sword. Boy,
God set him in slippery places. And down he went. God keep us. May God not let anybody here
in this congregation tonight fall into the error of this man,
Balaam. When we see something written
in God's Word, brothers and sisters, don't go beyond it. Don't try
to say, let's go and see if we can get God to change His plans,
change His will, see if He's got something more to say. He
don't have anything more to say. than what He said in His Word.
Walk in the light of His Word. If you struggle, that's alright. Go to the throne of grace. But
don't swerve. Don't leave His Word. Don't leave
His Word.